Saturday, October 19, 2019

Too Greedy, Even for Trump?

So now, not only has the White House walked back the statement from Mick Mulvaney's Thursday presser that of course they do quid pro quo's (although they have fully embraced the "get over it" part), but Trump has now withdrawn his Doral property from consideration for the G-7 summit, also announced at the same time.

The deal might have been just a bit too greedy, even for Trump. One of the noticeable issues (besides the whole constitutional emoluments clause stuff) was that the property has only two presidential suites, and the taxpayers might be on the hook for upgrades--dishing out for a week of official business, but enhancing the Trump property permanently. The cost of that was bound to become a topic of intense scrutiny.

There was also the issue of optics--is the middle of an impeachment inquiry the best time to look like he's grabbing up ducats with both hands? And just like his earlier suggestion about using the Doral property initiated a Twitter-storm about bedbugs, there are two sides to advertising his property in this way: we all know enough about Florida weather to know why the resort might have low occupancy in June, anyway, and also, there is a possibility of bad word of mouth from guests who might not be 100% thrilled with the idea. Getting press about his property being the site where international leaders meet goes bad if anyone cancels due to controversy, or leaks that there was something they found "problematic" with the Trump brand.

It was a gamble to suggest his own property in the first place--but walking away from the deal makes sense, even if Trump seem pissed about it. If only he would understand the "hostile media" (read: "critical") and the loyal opposition could serve as a sounding board to make less-awful decis---

But no! I do not think this will become a regular thing.

1 comment:

Ten Bears said...

"If legally permissible - @ zero cost to..." are the weasel words.

Someone has to pay to fumigate the place. Yeah, he would've raked a few bucks in an otherwise dismal season, but the place needs to be renovated - on the taxpayers' dime of course. That's the bigger deal.

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